Waves review (PC)

I like my twinstick shooters. Ever since Geometry Wars, everyone has their own little spin on them. In core, they all play the same. Not to say that people haven't added interesting new mechanics or twists to the genre.
I like to think of myself as a bit of a twinstick shooter connoisseur, I've had a go at the Geometry Wars series, Superstardust HD, Blast Factor, Everyday Shooter. I also have a small library of indie twinstick shooters on my 360, Echoes++, Pew Pew Pod and IMadeAGameWithZombiesInIt!!!

I've bought all of these up, because Waves takes the best parts of the above games and makes something new and exciting. It takes the concept of geoms from Geometry Wars: Galaxies & GW2 to multiply scores, it takes the slow mo from Blast Factor and it takes the chain reaction explosions from Every Extend. Yes, Every Extend, the game where your ship committed suicide, not that your ship explodes, but through multipliers by shooting, you can gain a bomb wave but have to use it before it dies down, so not are you roaming around shooting, slowing time down, you're also strategically shooting enemies to build up that multiplier to blow up a build up of floating baddies in the corner.

A different type of enemy I've personally not seen in a twinstick shooter before are these kind of small hexagons that multiply and slowly invade a huge batch of the arena unless you shoot them, this is where the bombs and chain reactions come in. Another kind of enemy is a huge cube that rushes towards you after rolling around, the other enemies are spheres and the normal kind of generic colour coded, different behaving enemies you see in games which take inspiration from Geometry Wars but in 3D.

The game itself once played is a bit of a lightshow which I can only compare to a freeware game named 'Veck'. Coloured shapes, disco lighting, circle shaped arena, arcadey electro music, rainbow coloured explosions and a slightly hypnotic 'wave' effect trailing behind your ship as you move.

It's a shame that Squid in a Box hasn't put this game onto consoles yet, because it's by far one of the most professional, original, stylish, addictive twinstick shooters since Geometry Wars and there's some additional game modes too, much like Geometry Wars 2.

At the time of typing Waves is currently in the 'Because We May' Indie sale, at a discounted price and the same on Steam, so go get it. Just prepare to wear your WASD keys out, unless you have a joypad.

Ups

Hypnotic light show

Brilliant game mechanics

The 3D shapes are a nice break from 2D

Downs

Only one arena

Tiny soundtrack

Not on consoles

Score

8.0

Graphics
It's a nice break to have 3D shapes instead of generic coloured 2D parallelograms and circles. The constant waves around your movement and coloured spotlights make it a marvelous lightshow.

5.0

Sound
Overall sound design is excellent, choices of male and female voices for announcer. Small selection of tunes to play to.

9.0

Gameplay
Taking some of the best ideas from twinstick shooters and putting them into one game flawlessly is a fresh experience.

9.0

Fun factor
Great for short sessions and addictive to beat that last score.

1.0

Online
Scoreboards. Basically if your mate beats the score you can see it. There are global scores, but you can only see this on the main menu.